Trump does not care about Venezuela (and by extension its people or their desire for a democratic government). Trump cares about making Venezuela a compliant vassal state, doing whatever the highest bidder wants Trump to make Venezuela do. Michael Scherer/The Atlantic: Trump Threatens Venezuela’s New Leader With a Fate Worse Than Maduro’s The president told The Atlantic that Delcy Rodríguez needs to comply with U.S. wishes—or else. The severe tone he took with Rodríguez contrasted with the praise he had offered her yesterday, hours after U.S.-military forces attacked Caracas and captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for criminal prosecution. Trump said in a news conference after the attack that Rodríguez had privately indicated a willingness to work with the United States, which Trump declared would temporarily “run” her country. “She’s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,” he said yesterday. Rodríguez rejected that suggestion moments later, declaring that the country is “ready to defend our natural resources” and that the nation’s defense counsel remained prepared to carry out the policies of Maduro, whose return she demanded. “We shall never be a colony ever again,” she said. The prospect of Maduro’s government continuing to resist the U.S. raised the risk of a protracted fight for control of Venezuela that would require increased U.S.-military involvement and even occupation. Trump yesterday signaled his willingness to order a second wave of military actions in Venezuela, should he deem it necessary.
All those booster jabs that you have been taken( allegedly) are rotting your brain. Seriously dude, you’re retarrded.
To recap: Is it about drugs? Hard to argue that when the ex-leader of El Salvador was recently pardoned for doing the same things Maduro is accused of doing. If it was drugs and/or the existing indictment, and we were obligated to bring him to justice, where in the indictment or any legal theory whatsoever does it say we are able to take over the country and do as we please? Is it about democracy? Hard to argue that when the opposition leader, who likely won the last election according to independent observers is pushed aside in favor of the VP of the Maduro ticket. Now, we have it affirmed that Machado is out because she dared accept a Nobel Peace Prize. There's also the problem of a bunch of US oligarchs visiting Venezuela to look at "opportunities," which doesn't sound very democratic to me. finally, there are now reports that Stephen Miller may be put in charge of Venezuela, which means a closet Nazi who hates people from anywhere south of Texas (and many in Texas) is going to be the satrap. What could go wrong? Is it about the oil? Sure, even though Venezuelan oil is really dirty, difficult to refine, and is more carbon-intensive than other kinds. Perhaps it's more about the romantic idea of oil than the reality of Venezuelan oil. I think Josh Marshall is right when he posited that there are conflicting factions with the administration but they can all work together to get a "Sure, sounds cool" from the President. It seems notable that oil executives were informed beforehand when most in Congress were not. Is it about precedent? Yes. Changing the Monroe Doctrine and international law into whatever the President wants reflects much of how Trump sees himself and the Presidency. Riding high on the success of a quick military operation, we are now openly talking about Panama, Greenland, Mexico, and others as if they are dominos about to fall. If only we had something in our history that was similar, we might be able to guess how this will turn out. Is it about playing to the right-wing media ecosystem? Undoubtedly. Why else would they be monitoring tweets from the hastily draped, open-aired SCIF at Mar-a-Lago? Daddy was slipping but now he is back and strong as ever. The turnaround on Venezuela and the lock-step marching happened significantly faster than I thought when the news broke. I was thinking 10 days-2 weeks, but it was a matter of hours. Is it about distracting from the Epstein files? Yes, in the sense that everything dramatic distracts from the Epstein files, no in that everything this administration does is full of drama. Still, one does not need to squint hard to see the Supreme Court argument that a war president can't be bothered by this Epstein nonsense. Is it about the corruption of the military? Undoubtedly. The boat bombings were used in part to ferret out those who had morals and would question illegal orders. They've now found their guys and put them in charge. Of note: If we are really doing Panama, Mexico, Greenland, etc., does anyone think we can do it all without a draft? (It's not their kids that will be going. It's ours.) Is it about planning and long-term success. Haha, no. There's no realistic planning taking place--just a bunch of fantastical assumptions, ahistorical conclusions, and a complete disregard for future conditions and anything unexpected. This is planning by force of will, as in, if I believe it, it will happen. With a bunch of propaganda, that can work sometimes, but reality always finds a way, particularly when combined with economics and nationalism. TLDR: Conflicting rationales, greed, pettiness, vanity, poor planning, and intentional blindness don't put the US in the best spot here. Good luck all. I suspect this will all get much worse.
any tinpot Latin dicatorship (e.g. Cuba) that plays games with the US (e.g. sending their drugs/criminals into our country, seizing US assets, kidnapping US citizens, etc.) has now been put on notice we can capture your leaders at any time
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/01/05/trump-cuba-is-ready-to-fall-n4947914 Trump tied Cuba’s fate directly to Maduro’s ouster, pointing out that Havana depended on Caracas for cheap oil and regional muscle. With Venezuela no longer able to bankroll its allies, Trump said the dominoes across the region have started to tip. “Cuba is ready to fall, you know?” Trump said. “Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall. I don’t know how they, if they’re gonna hold out.” Trump pointed out that “Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of that,” he said. As reporters attempted to ask additional questions, Trump returned to the same theme, saying, “And Cuba literally is ready to fall, and you have a lot of great Cuban Americans that are gonna be very happy about this.” Asked whether the United States was considering taking action in Cuba, Trump suggested events would unfold on their own. “We’re not… I think it’s just gonna fall. I don’t think we need any action. It looks like it’s going down,” he said.
